Canadian 'freezeway' could let residents skate to work | Hacker News Reader

Canadian 'freezeway' could let residents skate to work

bbc.co.uk

69 pointsedward32 comments

We have this in Ottawa, it's called the canal: http://www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/rideau-canal-skateway/

I have friends that use it on a daily basis (especially now that it has been less than -15C for over 45 days this year.

A number of us have actually even used it to skate to work!

I used it a few weeks ago in Ottawa. Sections of it were closed as the ice was in poor condition (not too thin, but too rough for skating).

It was great fun, but wasn't anywhere near as busy as the picture in the article and most of the people using it looked like they were there recreationally.

As an Ottawaian I am always a little confused as to why they never run Zambonis along the Canal -- it is because of cost or is it not safe to run these machines on the Canal?

Some people use it to get to work, but most don't. The problem is that it is very very cold here in Ottawa. This morning it was -22 C before you factor in windchill (which would be worse if you are skating.) In that cold it sucks to put on skates, and your face hurts.

It's because they aren't the best for it. They'd require a lot of passes.

So they modified a zamboni! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THe4vZ2dVfM

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/smooth-operator-2/

Ah, another picture:

http://www.vancouversun.com/crews+clear+snow+then+flood+Ride...

It does get that busy occasionally. Primarily during Winterlude[1] which is an annual outdoor festival that attracts large crowds. You're right, the primary use is undoubtedly recreational because frankly it's not a great way to commute.

That said, getting around the city on foot or bike can be significantly more convenient during the winter because you can cross the river at dozens of spots rather than having to use one of the handful of pedestrian or car bridges.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterlude

I've actually skated to work for years in Ottawa. Shopify always had it's offices close to the downtown end of the canal :-)

I just skated 13K on the canal in Ottawa - it's a blast. This year the ice is good but it varies, some years you get only a couple weeks of decent skating. For reliable self-propelled commuting in winter you're probably better off looking to bike paths and cross-country ski routes - there's no shortage of snow!

Especially now that 'fatbikes' that can ride on snow are widely and cheaply available, e.g. http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/gravity/fat-bikes/fat-bi...

Here in Winnipeg there is a path maintained on the rivers in the winter. More people commute by bike on the pedestrian side than skate on the skating side. From that I get that bike beats skates in terms of speed and effort.

These are just normal bikes. When the ice gets cold it provides a lot of traction.

I commute by bike, and agree that it's probably more efficient than skating, but I'd probably put some skates on and use this path in the winter just to change things up a bit. Ice skates are actually pretty darn efficient. Much more so than roller or inline skates.

It doesn't necessarily follow. I can think of at least two other reasons as to why skates would be less used:

1) skates require much more skill than bikes, reducing the number of potential users. 2) the skateway network isn't as big (what happens when you have to get off the skateway, it makes it lesss useful than the bike path)

I like the ideas coming out of the Winter Cities concept. However, coming from Europe and on the topic of transportation, I'd rather see money spent on a wider rail network, live bus tracking or just actual pavements...

Ya but those ideas are boring. Here in North America we prefer whimsical to practical.

I'm having trouble thinking of something more Canadian than skating to work.

Sorry, I can't help you with that.

:->

I was half expecting a downvote on that from someone who didn't get the joke, but I'm still a little disappointed....

(Hint: What's more Canadian than skating to work? Apologizing for shit. It's what we're known for. Well, that, hockey, curling, Tim's, Don Cherry, and most of the best comedians on US TV and movies over the last 30 years. Sorry 'bout that.)

The Finnish variant is a Stiga Jet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdiPmYSTwlU

(The video starts pretty slowly, and doesn't provide much info about how that was built, but it looks fun. There are also plenty of more scaled-up projects, basically looking like combining a ski-doo with a V-1 rocket).

(I actually used a kicksled in the winters to go to school, until I got a moped.)

In some parts of Norway they only clear snow from half of the sidewalk so you can use kicksled on the other half.

That is nice. Particularly when my kids were small, I would have liked to take them to the daycare in a toboggan, but the pavements were always ruined with grit.

What is a kicksled??? I want one already!

[update] wow...found one, the kickspark! Awesome. http://www.goslide.ca/en/shop/kickspark.php

That's the modern sports variant. The traditional one is better suited for transporting stuff and one or even two passengers as well: http://www.esla.fi/fin/potkukelkka.html

In good conditions this can be amazingly fast, and two people can alternate so that one pushes the sled and the other one rests on the seat.

Well, when I lived in Calgary my software developer roommate/friend and I canoed down the river to work. Felt pretty Canadian after that. Only worked one way though, paddling upstream through the deluge of meltwater proved impossible. We were also outstripped by people biking along the riverbank (our usual mode of commute) so only did it once.

This reminds me of the Dutch Elfstedentocht, where they have a huge super-marathon skate across 11 cities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht

Would be awesome to see a similar race develop in Canada.

I grew up in St. Albert, just outside of Edmonton and slid my way to school many times. Making some sort of official 'freezeway' seems like an obvious evolution and concentration of something people do a lot of anyway! (In boots, mind you...)

I'm from Norway, and for a couple of years I worked about 100m away from home. Awesome during summer. Problem was I lived at the top of a steep hill. Come my first winter there I realised the slight issue. It got "exciting" trying to make my way down on the pavement via the direct route, as it involved frantically trying to brake on ice, with the risk of a sudden stop when reaching the ice-free heavily trafficked road at the bottom.... The alternative was walking 5 times as long. I tried 3-4 times before I gave up and went for the "long" route for the rest of the winter.

But it's always amusing to watch people who aren't used to cold climates trying to walk on ice after having gotten practice in conditions like ours - the entire way they move is different.

I'm not a very experienced ice skater, but it seems like the flatness of a frozen canal is what makes it nice to skate on. The renderings in the article show frozen over sidewalks, which presumably have at least small slopes to them. Would that make it to challenging to skate long distances?

As a side note, I live in Washington DC where we've had a few weeks of sub-freezing temps, and was out on the frozen C&O canal last weekend. Unfortunately our canal doesn't go anywhere interesting, so it wouldn't make much of a commuter trail.

Nice. I loved skating when I was a kid, but skating rinks bore me. I always thought it'd be fun to travel a longer route as you would on skis. Now recreational skating routes do exist (usually built on natural ice e.g. on lakes), but a frozen way in the city sounds much more fun and useful.

They also have a cross country ski lock-up area at one of the train stations here in Edmonton. I'd like to see this freezeway just so I could bike on the ice with my studded tires away from the car traffic.

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I'm in Ottawa. I really need to get around to skating this year before it melts away. Thanks for the post and the reminder to get out there!

(Yes, I'm playing with my Keybase.io account / tool) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Keybase OpenPGP v2.0.4 Comment: https://keybase.io/crypto

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did you just want to show off that you can encrypt a pointless comment?

thanks for that valuable contribution to this discussion.

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